Night Lizards: Xantusiidae

Each night lizard species is very picky about where it makes its home. Some species live only in very dry areas, like rocky deserts. Others only live in the rotting parts of certain types of plants or in the dead leaves or decaying logs laying on the ground in a rainforest. Some night lizards even prefer life in a cave. Although members of the family live in North America, Central America, and Cuba, they stay in small areas within that range. For example, the only part of the United States that is home to night lizards is the Southwest, and the Cuban night lizard makes its home in a tiny part of Cuba, where it lives under rocks or buried in soil in areas of dry warm forest.